Shin-AMV wrote:Dunno if I missed it, but whats the timescale/schedule for the Pro judging look like right now, when do we nominate the categories, nominate the finalists and vote for the winners?

It's on the VAT page on the AWA website.Nominations (and category nods, one combined step this year) will be Sep 11 - Sep 17. Final voting will be Sep 18 - Sep 24.Instructions will go out via email shortly.

A direct message to me might be faster. Seems there is an issue with the server that houses the SQL database... I'll have to open a ticket with my ISP in order to figure out what is going on. According to their issue tracker there are no known issues.

Figures. Hopefully this will be resolved soon. If not I will make an announcement as soon as I can get the backup server running, which will not be until I get off work in 3 hours.

All I can say is keep trying, I'll announce here when I know it's back up.

The system should be back up now. At least I can get into it from 3 different locations now. It may be spotty though since godaddy (yes, I know. My hosting package is up for renewal next year and I'm jumping ship then) is apparently having issues today....

As long as you are in contact with me directly, anyone who is unable to submit their entry today due to godaddy's outage (they're still working on it, but it seems like some things are coming back up) I'll let ya'll submit late. But you have to be in contact with me directly.

In the mean time, make sure your videos are ready to be uploaded. If need be I can open FTP accounts without the entry system and have you fill out an entry form later.

The system loads for me sporadically, and has been doing this ever since I was notified. So keep trying is all I can say at this point.

It would seem godaddy is finally getting everything cleaned up. The system is up and running as far as I can tell. Some users may not be able to access the site in some areas due to DNS issues. These should be resolved soon. Email has been flowing again as well so I'm finally getting notifications of accounts for FTP and new entries so things seem good.

I am going through all the FTP accounts right now, making sure everything is closed that should be and open that should be. I have a double check system in my backend that I'm going to use as well in case in this issue the system failed to send some FTP notifications to me. So everyone should have their accounts (if not already) very soon.

Anyone still having issues please be sure to let me know. You can reach me here on the forums or in any of the IM options listed on my profile, or via email at awa [at] ngsilver [dot] com.

At this point there shouldn't be any further interruptions with the entry system provided godaddy doesn't have another major outage.

In light of this outage and the downtime it has caused, we'll be extending the entry system taking entries an extra day, especially to allow our friends across the pond a chance to enter as deadline pushers ^^()

So I'll be shutting down FTP account creation and Contest Entries on 9/11/2012 at 11:59 PM EDT (-4 GMT)